Category Archives: PRAYER

PRAYER SURVEY

A stunning 87% of all Americans believe that prayer is answered by God.

82% asked for heath or success for a child or other family member when praying.

75% asked for strength to overcome personal weakness

85% don’t turn away from prayer even after prayers are not answered.

It has also been reported that all but a few medical doctors believe in God and 69% of doctors pray from time to time.

The real message is that prayer is truly of preeminent importance today.

WHY PRAY?

Why would God, who knows everything, ask us to pray when He already knows our needs before we ask?

Actually, prayer comes very naturally to us. There is even a yearning in our most innermost being that leads us to prayer. Where does this deep compulsion originate?

God designed us so that we might wish to know and be more like Him. We are “wired for God”. St. Augustine said,”You have made us for Yourself; and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” We have been created for a purpose: to know, love and serve our God. So God wills us to develop an intimate fellowship with Him.

So we need to spend time together in silence and in the most intimate kind of discourse. Our prayer should be a deep soul conversation with our Creator, which was designed from the beginning.

Prayer in a community is also part of God’s plan, “where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20 In fact, there is more power in this form of prayer.

Here is the Real Tragedy: THE NEW NORMAL

Climate change is a devilish problem for humanity with scary forecasts. It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. Across the US, “500-year” storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually.

Parts of the Earth could become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century, distorting nearly every aspect of human life as it is lived today. They expect 200 million climate refugees in the world by 2050.

END OF NORMAL

Like An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring before it, The Uninhabitable Earth is both a meditation on the devastation we have brought upon ourselves and an impassioned call to action. The world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime.

END OF NORMAL

Because humans are responsible for the problem, they must be capable of undoing at least some of it. It sounds the alarm at a time when immediate action must be taken. The responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation: your generation!

Stimulus and automatic stabilization are still able to place a floor under economic collapse. But they are not able to bring about a return to high growth and full employment. Exercising caution over warning signs is tantamount to complacency.

The book, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming depicts the most horrendous catastrophes that will wreak havoc and death on the earth if the people and nations do not immediately undertake major serious programs to halt global warming – if it is not already too late.

Global warming is wreaking havoc now. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Five of the 20 worst fires in California’s history blazed in 2017; the deadliest incinerated the town of Paradise last year. Floods are becoming wetter, droughts drier and hurricanes fiercer. Such calamities mark “the end of normal”, as climate change tips Earth beyond the conditions that allowed humans to evolve in the first place. And that is with barely 1°C of man-made warming since the industrial revolution.

Things will get much worse. The world is on course to become at least 3°C hotter than in pre-industrial times. Even if warming did not exceed 2°C, as stipulated in the Paris climate agreement of 2015, rising seas may engulf $1 trillion-worth of American property.

Do you have problems with commitment to prayer? How about short five minutes segments in an hour? You can also just pray at a few spokes of the wheel.

It’s wonderful to start the day with the Lord, praying in the early hours before work begins. Having a set time and place for prayer has positive benefits, whether it is morning, noon or night.

Consider the “Miracle Hour” as an intensely loving “power encounter” with your heavenly Father. The more you can personalize them, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you spontaneously in your own words, the more meaningful it will be.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?Psalm 42:1-2

Let us pray!

THE MIRACLE HOUR

PRAISE

People of praise are people of faith. Praise draws us into the abundant life in which God created us to live. When we praise God we acknowledge His supremacy in our lives. Praise draws us into His presence even when we don’t feel like it.

Let us praise God in all things. For the next five minutes just forget about yourself and concentrate on God. Between each segment you may wish to say the Our Father prayer or pray in the charismatic gift of tongues.

Most people don’t know that God want to heal them:

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. ” 3 John 1:2

Healing is often overlooked today.

Our culture has little place for such experiences. People do not understand the concept of a “divine breakthrough” into our little world. “

If a person does not appear to be healed after prayers, one should not be anxious; the healing minister will have followed exactly what God requires. The healing is done in heaven: these are only delayed healing. God wants us to depend on Him– not a technique.

Man’s most basic need is to know that he is loved. Let us contemplate the important part love has in the healing process. At Lourdes, some people are healed and others are not, but all leave with a sense of peace,convinced that the Holy Spirit has touched them and that God loves them.

When you go to a doctor for healing, you don’t try to justify our asking for help, e.g. Help me because I can be a better parent, a better worker, a better spouse. Yet this is what many people do when they pray for healing from God: they even try to bargain with God:I will do this if only you heal me. These people have a fearful relationship with God.

FAITH PRAYER & HEALING

The real truth is that God is Love and He wants to see you healedwithout your justification. Healing is an ordinary, not an extraordinary sign of God’s mercy and compassion. “But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

Jesus cured not just to prove He was God, but because He was abounding in love. God is more than willing to save and heal all who come to Him with open and contrite hearts. Healing can be a test of faith, but also a natural response to God’s generous love. The minister of healing, who is nothing more than a human channel, says the prayer of healing and then steps aside.

After welcoming the presence of Jesus, and giving Him praise and thanksgiving, we turn to laying of hands, which is biblical: “They will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well“Mark 16:18

Along with a prayer of faith, the value of touching the sick person in any way possible provides a channel, where power is transferred more readily and far, far more effectively. There seems to be a current of healing power that flows from the minister of healing to the sick person. But Jesus said, “Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me.” Luke 8:46Continue reading A FAITH PRAYER & HEALING→

EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE OF AGING

Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older. On the contrary, as we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say: “Well, I have seen it all. … There is nothing new under the sun. … I am just going to take it easy and take the days as they come.”

But in this way our lives lose their creative tension. We no longer expect something really new to happen. We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored. We have become couch Christians.

God is still writing your story.Don’t let go of your faith because of what you have yet to see.

The challenge of aging is waiting with an ever-greater patience and an ever- stronger expectation. It is living with an eager hope. It is the trusting that through Christ “we have been admitted into God’s favor … and look forward exultantly to God’s glory” Romans 5:2

When Neymar’s Brazil won gold in its home Olympics in 2016, Neymar took the podium to receive his gold medal with a headband reading “100% Jesus.”Yet this ostensible display of devotion caused controversy, given the star player’s out of wedlock son and public love life. Fame and fortune are always dangerous to the Christian.

There are those who have two minds because one is wavering or inconstant. This person has no settled principles. He is controlled by passion; he may be influenced by popular feeling. In other words, he is inclined to one opinion or course of conduct, and now to another. “A man is of two minds, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8

David of the Old Testament commanded that Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, be put at the front lines of the battle and that the troops be pulled back from him. Just as David had hoped, Uriah was killed. David then took Bathsheba as his wife.

David’s behavior presents a perfect example of a double-minded man. Even though he had God’s Life in his heart and had been “a man after God’s own heart,” he nevertheless chose to go with the tide and follow the lusts of his own flesh over what God was prompting him to do.

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Are you unstable about your relationship to Christ?

We simply have to find a quiet place and a straight chair and sit in a relaxed position. We close our eyes and begin to repeat the name of Jesus in a seven word breath prayer that you find meaningful until we are completely focused on Him.

Then we surrender to Him and allow Him to do whatever He wishes. We simply absorb all His love, His peace and joy. We let Him be in charge for the duration of the prayer.

If a distraction comes, we gently return to repeating the name of Jesus until the distraction goes away, and continue our surrender to Him. We must not expect anything but accept whatever the Lord gives us. This is a prayer of the heart and Jesus will communicate in the center of our heart. Remember He is free, and be patient.

If you have not contemplated before, just read the book on contemplative prayer andbegin contemplating for 10 minutes. Once you are comfortable with 10 minutes, you can add a few more minutes until your prayer lasts 20 minutes. Contemplative prayer should last 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

Almost every person can contemplate and even children as young as 12 years of age can profitably contemplate for 10 or more minutes.

Remember that contemplative prayer is a gift from God. Prayer is very dear to Jesus. It makes our relationship with Him grow continuously.

THE DISCIPLE OF HEALING

All that is needed is the disciple of healingto be an instrument. He or she does not get power from theological studies or academic degrees. It is Jesus that has the power and who accomplishes all the work: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. “Galatians 2:20 It was the same with all the great saints in the world, who had become so totally preoccupied with Jesus, that they forgot all the things that were wrong in their life.

Prayer is a gift from God.To cooperate with the gift of healing, one must be disciplined to give time for prayer. A healing disciple must be very connected. Some spend three hours a day before the Lord. Jesus wants no less than an hour for Himself.

When healing prayers are said over the phone, even on the other side of the world, by a disciple of healing, the person being prayed for can be completely healed. Jesus is not confined to one place. God is everywhere and His prayer is limitless; there is not distance for Him.

The short answer is Yes, but through the Disciple of Healing. Those disciples can be found in healing prayer groups that meet in church basements during the week. Often those disciples may only have a small inkling that they have been blessed with a gift of healing.

PRAYER INTIMACY

The growth of our spiritual life depends upon the development of our friendship and intimacy with God so that we can share all our actions with Him. The goodness of God is dynamic. It leads to action; it not only fills the soul but it makes the soul love and makes it manifest its love in deeds. Christ has no more ardent desire than to see en-kindle on our souls the fire of love, with which His own Heart is consumed.

It is essential that the soul should put itself in daily contact with our Lord.We should develop the habit of talking to God frequently during the day quite informally. At all costs, we must persevere in devoting a set time to private prayer daily inflexibly. We also need to read daily in order that we may reflect daily. We can pray informally or simply talk to God. Yes, you will have distractions but you can make them the subject of your conversation with God.

GRACE THROUGH PRAYER

There is no soul which is not bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer:

A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty;

a soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it;

a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall again;

a sinful soul, plunged in sins, must pray so that it might rise again.

Diary 146

While the Bible gives us some clues, the 20th century mystic St. Faustina received a particularly vivid vision, which she recorded in her diary:

In China, 44 percent of religiously unaffiliated people have worshiped at a burial sitein the past year. Yet, many young Chinese look down on these traditions, calling them “superstitious” and “old-fashioned.”

A Chinese man brings flowers to the grave site of his deceased relatives to mark the Qingming.

Local funerals involve much pomp and ceremony; the family uses extravagance to demonstrate their love for the deceased. The night vigil shows a sign of respect.

How would we both honor the meaning of Christian funerals and also Chinese traditions? Both are different. Some think that Christianity shows excessive love for foreign things. They say it shows a rejection of one’s roots. Yet, these traditional funeral ceremonies seemed strange to many of a younger generation.

CAN SAINTS IN HEAVEN HEAR OUR PRAYERS?

A Christian funeralwith Christian meaning includes important prayers for the deceased. Catholics believe in offering prayers for deceased relatives.

“In heaven the elders and angels offer up the prayers of the saints [on earth] as incense before the throne of God”Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4

This implies that the angels and elders (holy Christians now in heaven) hear the prayers of every Christian on earth, and join their prayer now with ours: they can hear our prayers for the deceased.

Tweet Jesus Christ is the ultimate high priest and He presents us with a description of the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ as far superior to the many sacrifices offered by the old priesthood. Jesus said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they […]

Tweet THE PRINCIPAL AGENT OF MISSION The coming of the Holy Spirit makes them witnesses and prophets Acts 1:8; 2:17-18. It fills them with a serene courage which impels them to pass on to others their experience of Jesus and the hope which motivates them. The Spirit gives them the ability to bear witness to Jesus with “boldness.” […]